We had a discussion in Austrialia or New Zealand about Totems and burial, and my companions insisted that totems do not carry bones. I recalled, from a prior visit to Alaska, that the totems do carry bones. Here's an excerpt about this interesting matter:
"Several of them are funeral poles that once held wooden boxes with the remains of Haida nobles. The early Haida buried their chiefs by compacting their bodies into a tiny wooden box that was placed at the top of a burial totem in front of the chief's lodge. The carvings on the totem would tell the story of significant events in the man's life. Each totem tells a story and there is nothing random in their carving. Each rendered image whether real or imagined has a specific meaning, a wedding, a death, or a great battle, though many are known only to the people now long gone." - by James Michael Dorsey, "Islands at the Boundary of the World - Ninstints, British Columbia, Canada"
And here's another excerpt and source:
http://science.jrank.org/pages/4480/Mounds-Earthen.html
"No one knows what the effigy mounds were used for. Some archaeologists believe that they functioned as totem poles. As with totems, a few human bones were buried within the effigy mounds for their symbolic value...."
Monday, February 25, 2008
TOTEMS AND BURIAL
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books..
Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized.
Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines.
She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.
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